Category: Democratic News

Obama to Close Gitmo: Nicely Done, Mr. President

Posted on by TL

In one day and a few strokes of the pen, President Obama signed an executive order that will close Guantanamo Bay prison within a year and prosecute terrorism suspects in the United States.

Granted, closing Gitmo is easier said than done:

Underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

The issue is only so difficult because the Bush Administration dispensed with Habeas Corpus, and much of the United States Constitution with it.

With a few more strokes of the pen, President Obama banned torture.

To think that in 2009, it would take an act of the President of the United States to ban torture by the United States.

“Both civil libertarians and ex-CIA officials involved in interrogations and detentions policies hailed the changes,” says the Washington Independent.

Under the executive orders issued Thursday, the CIA’s interrogators cannot question detainees using “any interrogation technique or approach, or any treatment related to interrogation, that is not authorized by and listed in Army Field Manual 2 22.3.” That manual was rewritten by the Army in 2006 to reemphasize its compliance with the Geneva Conventions and U.S. laws banning torture. The Bush administration took an unyielding stance toward exempting CIA interrogations from that manual and those laws. But the Obama administration revoked all Bush administration executive orders from September 11, 2001 onward “concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals,” and directed the attorney general to conduct a thorough review of all other “directives, orders, and regulations” on the subject issued by the Bush administration that are no longer applicable.

Remember the Geneva Conventions?  They’re worth reviewing.  Seems we have a president who knows them, and desires to uphold them.

We all stand taller today.

Nicely done, Mr. President.

Roland Burris on the Rachel Maddow Show

Posted on by TL

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Blagojevich apointee to the United States Senate Roland Burris on the Rachel Maddow Show.

The Democratic Mile High Hug-fest Redux

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As Blagoland continues to implode, let’s take a trip back in time and watch the Democrats in Denver this past summer.  Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. started it as he embraced then State Senate Majority Leader now Congresswoman-elect Debbie Halvorson.

Jackson was sincerely moved by the hug with Mayor Richard Daley.

But Speaker Michael J. Madigan and Gov. Blagojevich?  According to a source who was in the room at the time, as they embraced, Blago whispered to Madigan, “I knew he was going to do this!”  And they parted as quickly as they came together.

Jesse’s a good guy. I’m not a fan of his Annual Roast — the humor is far too rancid for my tastes any more — but, in all fairness, Jesse does not start the bad jokes. That comes from all the sauced pols tryining to do stand-up.

But Congressman Jackson has always been there for us in the South Suburbs of Chicagoland when we needed him.

Looking back at all those hugs now, well, wow…. What a difference a few months makes!

Lisa Madigan Seeks to Oust Blago

Posted on by TL

The state of Illinois has been plunged into a constitutional crisis this week with the stinging indictment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.  Today, State Attorney General Lisa Madigan took it all up a notch:

Attorney General Lisa Madigan today opened an unprecedented legal attack against a sitting Illinois governor, taking the formal steps to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to declare Gov. Blagojevich unfit to hold office.

Madigan filed paperwork with the state high court this morning, invoking what is known as Rule 382 that would ask justices to rule on “the ability of the governor to serve.”

Madigan is seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, urging the state high court to oust Gov. Blagojevich “due to disability.”

The Sun-Times calls this an “untested legal front.”  You better believe it.  This move is without precedent in the state of Illinois.  If Blagojevich continues to insist on his innocence and remains in office, we are left with government essentially at a standstill.

Again from the Sun-Times:

Only 15 states, including Illinois, grant their state’s highest courts authority to remove a governor from office. The last time one of those states invoked that special power was in Indiana in 2003, when former Gov. Frank O’Bannon was removed from office after having suffered a stroke.

This will be much more difficult.  The man is innocent until proven guilty.  Madigan made a point of saying in her press conference on this matter that she was in no way making a statement about the guilt or innocence of the governor in these alleged crimes.  Her concern is that state government can no longer function.

Twice in one week, I’m completely blown away.

DOJ Asked Trib to Hold Story on Blago Probe

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The Chicago Tribune held off on publishing a story relating to the Bloagojevich probe.  The paper granted the request of Patrick Fitzgerald.

From Fitzgerald’s press conference this morning:

About eight weeks ago, before we had the bug installed, and before we had the wiretap up, we were contacted by the Tribune to comment or confirm or deny on a story that they were going to run. Had they ran that story, we thought we’d never have the opportunity to install the bug or place the telephone tap. And we made an urgent request for the Tribune not to publish that story. That is a very rare thing for us to do, and it’s an even rarer thing for a newspaper to grant. We thought that the public interest request that the story not run. It was a very difficult conversation to have because we weren’t allowed to describe what we were doing. And I have to take my hat off that the Tribune withheld that story for a substantial period of time, which otherwise might have compromised the investigation from ever happening.

Gov Rod Blagojevich Arrested by Feds

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The Chicago Tribune has the news:

A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney’s office would not confirm the information.

A Blagojevich spokesman said he was unaware of the development. “Haven’t heard anything — you are first to call,” Lucio Guerrero said in an e-mail.

The stunning, early morning visit by authorities to the governor’s North Side home came amid revelations that federal investigators had recorded the governor with the cooperation of a longtime confidant and had begun to focus on the possibility that the process of choosing a Senate successor to President-elect Barack Obama could be tainted by pay-to-play politics.

When Blago was re-elected a few years back, a friend of mine in the legal profession commented, “Now we’ll know what it’s like to have a sitting governor indicted.”

And, strangely, I’m shocked when it finally happens.

Good job, Feds.

Todd Stroger Wants Your Money

Posted on by TL

We’ve long realized that spending in Cook County is out of control.  Perhaps I would personally have more confidence in President Stroger if he had made a better entrance on a public elevator instead of insisting on a personal elevator.

We know we’re in recession that’s likely to get worse before it gets better, but Stroger is fooling himself that his a budget that borrows $740 million in bond issues is free of additional taxes.  Bonds need to be paid somehow.  Where’s the new sustained revenue stream in the budget to pay the debt service on these bonds?

Some wise voices on the board agree:

“There’s an economic crisis just short of the Depression, so for us to suggest that nothing’s changed and it’s OK to borrow our way through this problem is foolhardy,” Commissioner Mike Quigley said.

“This is a re-election budget for Todd Stroger,” Commissioner Forrest Claypool said. “It is designed to give him hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money to get through the elections and then after the election, [there will be] tax increase No. 2 from Stroger because that money has to be paid back.”

Stroger has other ideas, claiming his budget demonstrates a continued “pathway of reform, efficiency and modernization.”

But Stroger refused to release the proposed budget in its entirety.  That’s a huge mistake from a public relations standpoint, but characteristic of Stroger’s much-less-than-transparent style of governing.

I’d love to see what Commissioner Forrest Claypool saw when he read the first draft of Stroger’s Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time budget. Mark Konkol has the story:

“I’ve never seen a government that put out a budget so chock full of errors, inaccuracy and misinformation. I don’t even think they know their own financial picture,” Commissioner Forrest Claypool said. “It shows remarkable ineptness and is symbolic of general mismanagement of county government that taxpayers pay a heavy price for.”

On Wednesday, Stroger’s staff “demanded” some commissioners return the error-riddled copies while corrected versions are being made.

According to Konkol, the errors in the budget amount to very, very bad math:

The biggest problem with the budget document was in calculating the difference between 2009 budget line items and the 2008 spending plan. The 2009 proposed funding levels were subtracted from what individual departments requested rather than last year’s appropriation.

Cook County residents deserve much, much better.  I hope voters who were so hungry for change will remember the call to the polls when primary season rolls around again.

Cook County desperately needs change.

My money is on Forrest Claypool.  I hope he considers another run.

And Stroger needs to release his draft budget now so we can all have a look.  Maybe we can help him with his math.

Meet the Press – November 9, 2008

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Enjoy Meet the Press, Sunday, November 9, 2008.

Nov. 9: A look ahead at the Obama presidency with Valerie Jarrett, the newly appointed co-chair of the president-elect’s transition team. Plus, former RNC Chair Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) & House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and a political roundtable with Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jon Meacham & Mary Mitchell.